1 Feb 1928. HC to Olive and Harry Cowell, 2 Feb 1928: "I wrotefour compositions for string quartet yesterday & presented them to thePro Arte Quartett who like them very much and will play them andmy quintet for thunder sticks [no. 380] also, in Brussels in the spring.""Written for the Pro Arte String Quartet of Brussels" (caption).

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Ink full score in 4p. An additional page bears pencil sketches for the3rd and 4th of the solos.

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Did die Pro Arte keep their pro forma promise to die composer, as somany did not? No answer has been found; but the Guggenheim Foun-dation Report for 1935-36 carries HCs announcement that the FourLittle Solos were played in Paris on 31 Mar 1936 at a concert ofLeTriptyque at the Conservatoire Russe. "Solos for string quartet" isanodier example of HC's play with numbers. In each movement, 1instrument has a melody against the harmonic background of the otherinstruments. The soloists are in succession: vc, 2nd vn, va, 1st vn.Marked Passages see no. 429

439

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Three Pieces for Chamber Orchestra

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HC to Olive Cowell, 23 Feb 1928: "I have completed the score ofThree Pieces for Chamber Orchestra." Nowhere else in the Cowellmaterial has dlis precise tide been seen. It is possible the work died anearly death and simply is not known to us. It is also possible, however,that HC was referring to die 3-movement work (no. 443) that wasperformed at first as Marked Passages and later as Sinfonietta.